Jaime Pressly

Actress + Model + Producer

Female

BornJul 30, 1977

Jaime Elizabeth Pressly is an American actress and model. She is best known for playing Joy Turner on the NBC sitcom My Name Is Earl, for which she was nominated for two Emmy Awards (winning one) as well as a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She has also appeared in films such as Joe Dirt, DOA: Dead or Alive and I Love You, Man.… Read More

'I was diagnosed with HIV in late 1991. Shortly after, I joined a support group in Indianapolis, Indiana at the Damien Center. The people I met there had lost everything for disclosing their status-family, friends, jobs, housing. I felt grateful, and guilty at times, listening to others\' sad stories of loss and what they were afraid of losing--because I knew that I was supported in all areas of my life. I knew then that I had an obligation to share my HIV status on as many public stages as I...

'\n Fran Drescher\'s \"Happily Divorced\" has been cancelled, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The TV Land comedy will not return for Season 3, joining the recently axed \"Retired at 35.\" Its Season 2 finale, which aired in February, will serve as the series finale. \n\n \"Happily Divorced\" was based on Drescher\'s own life, centering around a florist named Fran (Drescher) who starts dating again after discovering that her husband (John Michael Higgins) is gay and divorcing him ...

Timeline

Learn about the memorable moments in the evolution of Jaime Pressly.

CHILDHOOD

1977Birth
Born on July 30, 1977.

TEENAGE

199214 Years Old
Pressly was born in Kinston, North Carolina, the daughter of Brenda Sue (née Smith), a dance instructor, and James Liston Pressly, a car salesman. In 1992, she moved with her family to Costa Mesa, California, where she spent the first semester of her high school sophomore year.
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By age 14, she had appeared on her first cover (Teen Magazine) and had become the official spokesmodel for the International Cover Model Search. At 15, she left school and went to Japan on a modeling contract. She succeeded in having herself legally emancipated from her parents at the age of 15 so she could travel to Japan, as neither of her parents could make the trip. Read Less

199719 Years Old
Pressly starred as "Violet" in the 1997 film Poison Ivy: The New Seduction.

TWENTIES

199820 Years Old
In 1998 she starred as "Nikki" on the short-lived TV series Push, and also played a recurring role as the undead assassin Mika in the TV action series Mortal Kombat: Conquest.

199921 Years Old
From 1999-2001, she played "Audrey" on the drama series Jack and Jill.
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Pressly starred in the independent film Poor White Trash, playing scheming gold-digger Sandy Lake. She subsequently appeared in a number of films, including Not Another Teen Movie (playing Priscilla, a high school cheerleader) and Torque, as a crazed, motorcycle-riding criminal. Read Less

200123 Years Old
In 2001, she was made the new spokesmodel for Liz Claiborne Cosmetics and its fragrance Lucky You.

200224 Years Old
In 2002, she was ranked #8 in Stuff magazine's "102 Sexiest Women in the World".

200325 Years Old
In 2003, she launched a lingerie line, J'Aime, which later became a full sleepwear and ready-to-wear line.

Pressly guest-starred in episodes of several TV shows. In an episode of the WB series Charmed, she played Mylie, a mermaid trying to find love; (Alyssa Milano, who played Phoebe, later guest-starred on My Name is Earl.) Other series on which she made guest appearances were The Twilight Zone, Fastlane, Las Vegas, Becker, Night Man, Silk Stalkings, and others. She appeared in an episode of the prank series Punk'd.<br /><br /> In 2005, Pressly was cast in the NBC sitcom My Name Is Earl, as Joy Turner. In 2007, she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on the show.<br /><br /> Pressly sang "Fever" in an appearance with the band The Pussycat Dolls. She has appeared in a number of music videos, including "The Space Between" by Dave Matthews Band, "Girls of Summer" by Aerosmith, and the Marilyn Manson cover of "Tainted Love". Read Less

On May 31, 2006, she hosted the first annual VH1 Rock Honors.
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Pressly was a producer, as well as a star, in the 2005 movie Death to the Supermodels. Read Less

She hosted the October 7, 2006, episode of Saturday Night Live.
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She guest-starred on an episode of MADtv (season 11), playing Hillary Clinton in a parody of My Name Is Earl, "My Name Is Dubya", in which George W. Bush (Frank Caliendo) makes a list of all the bad things he has done in the past and rectifies them one by one. Read Less

Pressly gave birth on May 11, 2007, in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to their child, Dezi James Calvo.

In a February 2007 interview on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Pressly said she wants the child to be bilingual (English/Spanish) to reflect Calvo's Cuban heritage.
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Pressly told People the name is part of a running joke, as Cuban-American Calvo does a Desi Arnaz impersonation, calling Pressly "Luuucy" when he comes home at night. In November 2008, the couple announced their separation.<br /><br /> Pressly said in a 2006 interview with Esquire that she almost purchased a ticket for a flight on one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, but decided not to take the flight, because she felt it left too early in the morning. Read Less

On January 21, 2011, Pressly filed for divorce from Singh, citing irreconcilable differences.

Pressly was arrested in Santa Monica, California, on the night of January 5, 2011, for suspicion of driving under the influence, a charge to which she eventually pleaded no contest and received three years of informal probation.

She appeared in the Fox sitcom I Hate My Teenage Daughter, which aired from November 30, 2011 to March 20, 2012.

201234 Years Old
In July 2012, Pressly starred in Jimbo Lee's Abby in the Summer.

201335 Years Old
In 2013, TV Land announced that Pressly was cast in the lead role for Jennifer Falls as Jennifer Doyle, a mother of a teenaged daughter, who must move in with Doyle's mother after being fired from a high-paying job.